It’s Time to Decriminalize Personal Drug Use and Possession. Basic Rights and Public Health Demand It.

Police arrest more people for drug possession than any other crime in America. Every 25 seconds someone is arrested for possessing drugs for their own use, amounting to 1.25 million arrests per year. These numbers tell a tale of ruined lives, destroyed families, and communities suffering under a suffocating police presence.

For the past year I have been investigating how the law enforcement approach to personal drug use has failed. The resulting report, “Every 25 Seconds: The Human Toll of Criminalizing Drug Use in the United States,” calls on state legislatures and Congress to decriminalize personal drug use and possession. It comes at a time when the country is recognizing that the so-called “war on drugs” hasn’t stopped drug dependence and that we desperately need to address the problems of mass incarceration, race, policing, and drug policy.

For personal drug use, it is time to replace our criminal justice model with a public health one instead.

The consequences of arresting, prosecuting, and incarcerating people for personal drug use are devastating. I met people who were prosecuted for tiny amounts of drugs, in one case an amount so small that the laboratory could not even weigh it and simply called it “trace.” That man was sentenced to 15 years in Texas.

On any given day, nearly 140,000 people are behind bars for drug possession, while tens of thousands more are cycling through jails and prisons or struggling to make ends meet on probation or parole. Still others are serving sentences for other offenses that have been lengthened because of a prior conviction for drug possession. A conviction for drug possession can keep people from accessing welfare assistance and even the voting booth. It can also subject them to stigma and discrimination by potential landlords, employers, and peers.

I met a woman I’ll call “Nicole” in the Harris County Jail in Texas. Nicole was detained pretrial for months on felony drug possession charges for residue inside paraphernalia. While she was in jail, her newborn learned to sit up on her own. When the baby visited jail, she couldn’t feel her mother’s touch because there was glass between them.

Nicole ultimately pled guilty to possession of 0.01 grams of heroin. She would return to her children later that year, but as a “felon” and “drug offender.” She would have to drop out of school because she no longer qualified for financial aid. She would no longer be able to have a lease in her name and would have trouble finding a job. And she would no longer qualify for the food stamps she had relied on to feed her family.

Forty-five years after the “war on drugs” was declared, rates of drug use haven’t significantly declined, and criminalization hasn’t stopped drug dependence. In fact, criminalization has driven drug use underground, making it harder for people who use drugs to access the help they sometimes really want and need. The “war on drugs” has caused enormous harm to individuals and families — harm that often outstrips the harm of drug use itself. And it has made communities less safe by deeply corroding the relationship between police and communities of color and focusing precious law enforcement resources on nonviolent drug use instead of violent crimes, less than half of which result in an arrest.

Our research also reiterates that enforcement of U.S. drug laws and policy discriminates against communities of color. Although Black and white people use drugs at equivalent rates, a Black person is 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug possession. In many states that ratio is significantly higher. In Manhattan, a Black person is 11 times more likely to be arrested for drug possession than a white person.

As Lisa Ladd told me in New Orleans, the scales of justice are out of balance. Lisa’s son, Corey Ladd, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for possessing half an ounce of marijuana. His prior convictions were also for drug possession, and so under Louisiana law he was treated as a “habitual offender” because of habitual drug use.

Corey’s only child, Charlee, was born while he was incarcerated; he held her in his arms for the first time in Angola prison. Charlee is four now and thinks she visits her father at work. Corey told me, “She asks when I’m going to get off work and come see her.” Charlee could be a teenager by the time her father comes home.

It is time for state legislatures and Congress to decriminalize personal drug use and possession. Decriminalization needs to be paired with a stronger investment in public health, emphasizing evidence-based prevention; education around the risks of drug use and dependence; and voluntary, affordable treatment and other social services in the community. Decriminalizing personal drug use and possession will improve countless lives.

It’s the moral responsibility of our government to enact this change for the health and liberty of the nation.

Dan M

You've said what needs to be said. Great post.

October 17, 2016

3:09 PM

Aussi

This is more than outrageous. No wonder cops are being shot. I knew a person in Lufkin, Texas who was stopped on a traffic violation about two years ago and the police found 1(ONE) Vicodin tablet in his truck. He told the pigs he had a prescription but was arrested and jailed anyway. When he was FINALLY released on some ungodly amount of bail, he went home and produced the prescription. His bail was refunded but only after he had spent several days in jail waiting for a "magistrate" to set his bond. This country, the so called "land of the free and home of the brave" has turned into a Soviet style police state where rights amount to nothing. We need to eliminate the so called rich filth drug warriors from all levels of government, including the pigs errr police.

Carl Quick

Speak the truth young brother, but get some sleep you were up late writing that comment.

October 17, 2016

11:14 AM

Anonymous

I support evidence-based prevention and reducing the rate of drug use. If each individual decided to choose not to use, then we would have mass bowling, mass ice-skating, and mass miniature golf instead of mass incarceration. Choose not to use.

Anonymous

I was married to someone that did meth. It destroyed her mental health and our family. She was in and out of rehab several times. Her and I are now divorced. She lives off the government because of the choices she has made and the American taxpayers foot the bill. I don't know if incarceration would have made a difference but it may have been a wake up call for her. I do think incarceration would have made meth harder to obtain.

Anonymous

Actually you are wrong. Incarceration would not have stopped her from obtaining meth. Drugs are widely available in our prison system. The only thing incarceration would have done is make it harder for her to put her life back together if and when she chooses to take a different path.

November 10, 2016

3:56 PM

Anonymous

My boyfriend was arrested and they found a baggie with traces of meth. He was offered probation for 5 years! Before he was final sentenced the police came to my home surround it with a drug dog and arrested him for drugs found in the neighbors yard! Social services took my kids. He got an attourney and they are trying to make him take 8 years in prison today! They threatened a PFO if he took it to trial because he was going to do that. They have never offered him treatment and refuse to

Anonymous

Having someone on drugs running towards you screaming demonically and flailing their arms is very terrifying..tell me after experiencing that you want them out there on the street..I don't feel safe outside my own apartment..